Creativity is a muscle, use it or lose it

Creativity is an amorphous subject. While discussing creativity is interesting, what's important is taking action: using your creative ideas, putting them into action. Many people make it to that stage. How many times have you heard: "We're gonna make some changes around here--- I've had some great ideas"? Somehow, those changes never seem to eventuate; those great ideas are never put into action.

If you've been working through Lesson 1 in our online creativity course, you've been asking yourself a lot of questions. That stirs up your subconscious mind, so I'm sure you've also come up with some ideas. But have you taken action on those ideas?

If you have, good for you! Keep going.

The rest of us procrastinate. We tell ourselves (pick one, they're all great excuses): that's too large a project to start right now, I'll wait until I have more time; I don't have all the information I need; nobody is interested anyway; I'm too tired; I've got a headache; I don't have the right equipment; etc etc. We're brilliantly creative in rationalizing our inertia.

Why do we do procrastinate? Major reasons for procrastination are: a desire to avoid pain/ discomfort, and a fear of failure. However, it's not enough to merely label these traits. We need a plan to overcome the resistance they represent.

Overcoming resistance

Here are the steps to overcoming your resistance to taking action:

1. Discover what's causing your resistance;
2. Take some small action on the resistance;
3. Work on the task you're on which procrastinating: if necessary, limit the time to five minutes.
   

   Work through the steps

   Discover what's causing your resistance;

   You don't need to do any deep thinking here. It's not necessary to psychoanalyze yourself.

   Basically, it doesn't matter what's causing the resistance. You may be baulking at the amount of effort you'll need to put into a large project. Or, you may think that you'll fail at the project anyway, so why bother starting.

   Take a sheet of paper and a pen, and write: "I am procrastinating on XXX because".

   Close your eyes for a moment, and take a deep breath. Relax. Imagine yourself working on the task easily, and enjoying the work. Now remember your last vacation. Try to pinpoint a moment during that vacation when you were completely relaxed, and having a great time. Bring those emotions back. Remember how much you enjoyed yourself?

   Open your eyes, and complete the sentence. "I am procrastinating because ..."

   Remember: your reason doesn't have to make sense. It can be completely nonsensical to the left-brained, logical you.

    

   Take some small action on the resistance

   Whatever the reason for your resistance, there is always some small action that you can take. This action is purely symbolic: you're signaling to your subconscious mind that you want it to dissolve the resistance.

   For example: you may be procrastinating on starting a project because it will take a lot of work. Illogical? Yes, but the reasons we procrastinate are rarely logical. Take a slip of paper, and write on it: "I now begin working on Project X. I enjoy working on the project." Paste the slip onto your computer monitor, or put it into your wallet.

    

   Work on the task you're on which procrastinating

   Begin working on the task immediately. Set a time limit, if you like. Make it five minutes. You'll work on the task for five minutes, and then you'll stop.

   If you set a time limit, don't extend the time. Breaking your inertia is the hardest part, and you'll find that when you've worked on the task for five minutes, you want to extend the time. Don't. Keep the deals you make with yourself. However, schedule a specific time to work on the task tomorrow.

Although the three steps to breaking your resistance seem simple, you'll find that they're highly effective. Work your way through the three steps, and use your creative ideas.